KAKTUSLife – TRU Development Co.

Residents at KAKTUSLife in Las Vegas, Nevada enjoy a luxury lifestyle at this oasis in the desert. KAKTUSlife is attractive to a sagacious clientele who value technology, health and sustainability in a connected co-living environment. A community within a community, this 210 unit complex has created an engaging culture and unique, sustainable, fully connected living accommodations. KAKTUSlife boasts a full suite of amenities both in and outdoors, including a wine lounge, a game lounge, a full kitchen that residents can reserve for gatherings, and pet-friendly spaces for tenants’ furry friends. “That’s the feel we’re going for in this luxury community space, how we’re trying to bring people together,” says Kelly Kwasniewski, Development Logistics – Tru Development Company.

KAKTUSLife allows residents to live, work, and play all within the self-contained community. While the central location, just steps from the Las Vegas Strip, provides convenient access to more.

Tru Development wanted KAKTUSLife to set the new standard for luxury multifamily housing in Las Vegas. KAKTUSlife was the first LEED Silver designed luxury apartment building in the Las Vegas region. While LEED design buildings require a significant up-front investment, Kwasniewski and TRU believe that the savings and incenves will provide a commensurate value-add over the next 5-10 years. “An investor who wants to come in and purchase, there’s nothing they’ll have to do in order to retrofit,” she notes, “and we’re creating a luxury product that’s really not in the market yet.” With no other buildings in the region that blend sustainability into their offering the way KAKTUSLife has, TRU is excited about the potential in their early adoption of these sustainability standards.

KAKTUSLife chose IOTAS to help to deliver those luxury, sustainable experiences to their residents. “We chose IOTAS because of the sleek app, and the ease of integration.” says Kwasniewski. All 210 KAKTUSLife units were outfitted with IOTAS technology, featuring smart switches, outlets and thermostats, with sensors and preset scenes that enable the user to automate their residence with ‘set and forget’ ease. The IOTAS functionality is integrated with the KATKUSLife app, requiring no additional apps and reducing app fatigue. The residents also don’t need to worry about additional sign-up or up-charges for the smart units; the service is available for the resident to use or not.

The process of provisioning the smart units was a notable bright spot for the KAKTUSLife project, and featured an extremely successful collaboration between TRU Development, IOTAS, and KAKTUSLife management company, Pinnacle. IOTAS staff worked closely with TRU Development and Pinnacle to perform an accelerated provisioning process of the smart apartments. “[Pinnacle] was a very invested leasing staff team,” says Ashley Wakefield, IOTAS Project Success Manager. “This team was excited and wanted to learn.” Pinnacle’s Jeffery Arterberry, the KAKTUSlife I Area Manager, explains his team’s eagerness to learn: “We felt it very important that the team be involved in this process and have a greater understanding of how the system works all the way through.”

Number of Units
210

Provisioning Time
4 Days

And IOTAS was happy to provide full training to the Pinnacle team. “The perk for [our] team was being able to learn something new that would benefit them in the long run,” says Arterberry of the Pinnacle team’s motivation participating in the installation, “Imagine having the knowledge of something that no one else has or offers in the valley. This truly makes you unique. How do you put a value on that?”

The coordinated team met the challenge head-on, completing all 210 units in just four days. The project was one of the largest residential Internet of Things (IoT) provisionings IOTAS had ever performed, moving at the remarkable rate of completing 12 apartments per person per day.

“It’s really all about teamwork and communication, and I think that has been the key to get us to this place. This was the first time that TRU, Pinnacle, and IOTAS came together on a project,” says Kwasniewski. “Because of the synergy with how we operate and who we are as business professionals,” the project exceeded her expectations for success.